Pittsburgh, Pa. - Robert Morris University men's hockey found the win column to close the weekend with a 3-0 shutout of Holy Cross. Sophomore goaltender
Francis Marotte made 27 saves for his first shutout of the season, the third clean sheet of his career. The Colonials picked up three of four available points in the Atlantic Hockey standings.
Senior forward
Spencer Dorowicz opened the scoring 5:44 into the game with his second goal of the season. Sophomore
Matthew Graham played the puck out of the corner to
Michael Louria who fed it to Dorowicz for the goal.
Louria earned his second assist of the game and ninth point of the season before the period came to a close, taking a pass from defenseman
Sean Giles and turning it towards the goal, where freshman forward
Ryley Risling cashed in for the first goal of his NCAA career. Risling's first career tally gave the Colonials a 2-0 lead heading into the second frame.
"It was a good play by Mike," said Risling. "He got the puck down low, drove to the net and caused some confusion for their goalie and then I pulled it out to my backhand. Felt pretty good."
Holy Cross put the pressure on Marotte in the second period firing 14 shots on goal. Much of the credit goes to the Colonials penalty kill for aiding Marotte in stopping 8 shots on the penalty kill during that second stanza. Robert Morris' penalty kill went 4-for-4 on the night with the defense blocking 14 total shots, five coming from captain
Alex Bontje and three by senior
Elias Ghantous.
"We've been waiting for a 60 minutes like this," said Marotte. "The guys really came out [strong] and never stopped working. They made it really easy for me tonight."
After being held to five shots in the second, RMU's offense came back to life in the third with what felt like the final nail in the coffin for Holy Cross. Sophomore
Luke Lynch put his seventh goal of the season past Paul Berrafato off a cross-crease feed by Graham, his second assist of the game and seventh point of the year. Dorowicz picked up his second point of the night with the second assist, his sixth point of the season.
"We built off a good week of practice," said Risling. "Guys were pretty disappointed with the tie last night and we were really hungry for tonight."
"That's what we've been waiting for," said Marotte. "I think that's going to carry us into next weekend too, that's a huge boost. I think we're going to be ready after a good week of practice to face RIT next weekend."
Lynch (7-2-9) and Louria (2-7-9) now lead the Colonials in scoring with 9 points apiece. Lynch's seven goals are tied for second-most in Atlantic Hockey.
Robert Morris (3-5-1, 2-0-3 AHC) heads to Rochester to face RIT (3-3-1, 3-1-0 AHC) for an Atlantic Hockey series next Friday and Saturday, Nov. 10 and 11, both games at 7:05pm.
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